The Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria

In the course of his artistic development, Jacopo Bassano came into increasingly close contact with the culture of central Italy, which spread north following the Sack of Rome in 1527. The Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria is one of the most distinctive works of this period of the painter. In this painting Bassano reached a level of abstraction where all traces of naturalism vanish and the colours become at once harsh in tone and richly ornate.